USA Today: B1G has 11 of nation's top 35 earners

By Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, 4 years ago

Andrew Weber-US PRESSWIRE

USA Today: B1G has 11 of nation's top 35 earners

By Tom Dienhart, BTN.com Senior Writer, 4 years ago

USA Today is out with another one of its exhaustive lists. This time, the paper looks at the 2012 finances of the schools, ranking them 1-228. The story looks at schools’ revenue, expenses, total subsidy and percent of subsidy.

The Big Ten has 11 schools among the nation’s 35 best earners. This isn’t a shock, is it? Ohio State is No. 2 in the nation; Michigan is No. 3.

It’s impressive that some schools take no subsidies to run their athletic departments. They are self-sufficient. But others do. This hardly seems fair. Honestly, every athletic department should be self-sufficient. It doesn’t seem right to take money away from education, etc., to fund athletics. If you can’t afford it, don’t do it.

Here’s a look at the Big Ten schools that are subsidized:

Michigan $258,885

Iowa $543,574

Indiana $2,782,080

Illinois $3,937,890

Michigan State $4,206,730

Minnesota $6,961,066

Wisconsin $7,127,453

Here are the Big Ten schools that aren’t subsidized:

Nebraska

Ohio State

Penn State

Purdue

Since Northwestern is a private school, it released no data. But check out Rutgers, which will join the Big Ten in 2014—its subsidy was $27,996,056. Maryland—also joining in 2014—had a $17,244,084 subsidy in 2012.

About Tom Dienhart

BTN.com senior writer Tom Dienhart is a veteran sports journalist who covers Big Ten football and men’s basketball for BTN.com and BTN TV. Find him on Twitter and Facebook, read all of his work at btn.com/tomdienhart, and subscribe to his posts via RSS. Also, send questions to his weekly mailbag using the form below and read all of his previous answers in his reader mailbag section.

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